Texture Analyses of Electrical Conductivity Maps in the Insula of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

Purpose: Previous studies have utilized texture analyses on T1-weighted images and quantitative susceptibility maps in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. This study aims to evaluate 3D texture analyses of high-frequency conductivity (HFC) maps at Larmor frequency, acquired from a 3T MRI system, as a potential imaging biomarker for AD Methods: HFC maps were generated for 18 AD patients, 25 individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 21 cognitively normal (CN) elderly participants using a six-echo turbo spin-echo pulse sequence on a clinical 3T MRI. Differences among the three groups were assessed by comparing the first- and second-order texture parameters of HFC images in the insular region, using a one-way analysis of covariance with age as a covariate Results: For the first-order analysis, the mean HFC was elevated in AD patients compared to the other groups. Significant differences were observed in the second-order texture parameters, including angular second moment, inverse difference moment, sum of squares, entropy, sum of entropy, difference of entropy, and sum of average, across the subject groups Conclusion: The findings indicate that AD patients have more complex and diverse patterns in HFCs within the insula compared to the CN and MCI groups.